Active Choice

What is active choice?

Active choice asks someone to select an option explicitly. A yes-or-no enrollment question is one example: the person has to answer instead of being enrolled through a preselected default.

That creates a visible decision, though it does not tell you how much thought went into it. Someone can actively choose while hurried, confused, or poorly informed.

Enhanced active choice

Keller and colleagues (2011) studied an “enhanced” version that emphasized the losses associated with the option the designers wanted people to avoid. The wording steers the decision. Calling it enhanced does not make it neutral advice.

Why it matters

Asking people to decide and enrolling them automatically are different approaches. When evaluating either, look beyond the enrollment total: do people understand the options, and does the choice serve their interests? Active choice makes a response explicit; the design of the question still matters.